Misrepresentation of job description, incompetent office members, unpaid work
Pros
From the online description, I thought working for Mad Science was going to be a fantastic experience. The only good thing about this job was being able to learn and teach young children about science. Although that is a fantastic benefit of this job, the cons heavily outweigh the single pro. I suggest you continue looking for a more reliable employment opportunity.
Cons
To begin, the job description is highly misleading and deceptive. The job description indicates that you will be paid $27.00 an hour. However, it fails to mention that that amount is per class and ONLY for one-hour classes. If you do not teach a one hour class, you receive significantly less. This information was given AFTER you accept the position. In order to successfully teach a class, you first have to learn the content; they do provide an “orientation” for each kit but it was all heavily rushed through and in order to properly teach the students the material, you have to re-teach the material to yourself. You must also prepare materials BEFORE each class in order for the class to run smoothly and so that you are not wasting 50% of the time dedicated to teaching students just to set up. All of this preparation time is not included in your pay; you are being paid less than minimum wage in the end and working your butt off. You also only get approximately 2.5 to 3 hours a WEEK if you are lucky, so this job will not be of any help in the financial department to you. They also say that they will pay for mileage to and from the schools, what they also do not mention until you accepted the position is that you must drive a total of 20 km BEFORE you can start earning mileage and it is only 0.20 cents per km. In the end, you are not even breaking even on how much you pay in gas to get to each school. You may also be driving up to 3 hours to and from a school which you are not paid for. They also say you receive a “bonus” cheque but in actuality this cheque is the money they owe you for driving to their main office in Burlington EVERY Friday just to switch out your weekly science kit, but disguise it as a “bonus” when it is just a small amount that they reimburse you for your mileage and time; which does not even cover 25% of the total cost for each Friday. The office members are very disorganized and incompetent. Every week (not an exaggeration) there was at least 1 item missing from my science kit; some weeks there were whole take homes missing. When I would email the office staff about the missing items, they would just tell me to either drive back to Burlington (hours and gas not paid for) or get is from someone else (hours and gas not paid for) even though it is their responsibility EACH week to ensure all kits are fully stocked. Not quite sure what they are doing throughout the week. The office staff expect you to respond to every email (valid) but fail to return the same respect. They also do not relay information; I drove 45 minutes to a school to be told from the office administrator that the class had been cancelled. My fellow mad scientist knew because the mad scientist office member told her but that same office member did not tell me. When I emailed 2 members of staff and left a voice mail for one, neither returned my email or call. They still have not compensated me for my time or mileage because of their lack of communication. Which leads me to my final big issue with this company; unpaid work. I worked 3 classes in my last week with this company and still have not received any pay for them. I have contacted them but they fail to respond with any helpful information and deny me working even though I have the schools and other staff members who vouch for my attendance, not to mention that if I never showed up, there would be rooms full of children unattended….. I’m sure that if that was the case someone would have alerted the office. So please, before you apply to this company, look elsewhere because it is not worth your time and loss of wages.
